The field of the disclosure relates generally to methods and systems for recommending merchants and, more particularly, to methods and systems for recommending merchants to a transaction payment cardholder based at least in part on the cardholder's past transaction history and the cardholder's merchant preferences.
Consumers today are provided with an increasing number of segments of entertainment choices available, as well as, an increasing number of merchants available in each segment. A segment is a group of merchants offering a similar entertainment experience, such as a dining segment, an events segment, a night club segment, and an activities segment. For example, in many cities, consumers have hundreds if not thousands of restaurant options when they desire to eat. Moreover, even when the restaurant options are narrowed by restaurant category or cuisine, there may still be an inconveniently large number of restaurant options presented to the consumer. Additionally, new restaurants may become available without the consumer's knowledge.
To address these issues, various known methods exist that provide restaurant recommendations to consumers. For example, Internet websites exist that enable consumers to provide restaurant reviews or score the restaurant, as well as, provide descriptive information (e.g., average prices, type of cuisine) about the restaurant. Often times, consumers can provide their comments and information for a restaurant in addition to a professional reviewer, thereby providing additional opinions for consumers. One problem that arises with relying on reviews of other consumers when selecting a restaurant is that some consumers have different preferences than other consumers, which can make the reviews and/or score for a restaurant unreliable for certain consumers. Additionally, in some instances, consumers are more likely to post a review based on a bad experience at a restaurant than they are to post a positive review, which can bias recommendations for other consumers.
Moreover, merchants may want to aid a consumer's decision by offering incentives, such as reward points, discounts, and special offers to consumers. Consumers have the option of searching numerous websites or “friending” numerous merchants in an effort to make more informed entertainment decisions. However, the websites are often not objective and their reputations are often not objective, and friending numerous merchant results in time-consuming searching through the friended merchant's website.